Contact - Ericsson.com · 2016-10-20 · straight from the RNC in the radio network to the GGSN in the core network. This applies for all 3G traﬃc, except that which goes to and

#7 • 2008 The magazine for Ericsson employees

How it works:3G DIRECT TUNNELPage 15 Page 5

Work smarter

Carolina – a time saver

Contact

Who is Ericsson’s strategy expert? Page 4

READERS’ COMPETITION RESULTS

What will happen in 2020?PAGES 32–34

MONICA WESTBERG, RESPONSIBLE FOR EJOBS:

“The time to appoint some one

to a new position will be shorter”

Pages 16–25

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Editor Jenz Nilsson, [email protected], +46 8 588 331 38 Publisher Henry Sténson, henry.�[email protected] In charge of internal channels Malin Nordén, [email protected] Assistant Editor Jonas Blomqvist, [email protected], +46 8 588 330 13 Reporters in this issue Jonas Blomqvist, [email protected], Lars Cederquist, lars.�[email protected], Johan Gabriel Fritz, [email protected], Helena Jansson, [email protected], Cia Kilander, [email protected], Gunilla Tamm, [email protected], Staff an J Thorsell, staff [email protected] Art director Pelle Bouveng, pelle.bouveng@�citat.se Layout Kajsa Dahlberg, kajsa.dahlberg@�citat.se, Carola Pilarz, carola.�pilarz@�citat.se Graphics Svenska Grafi kbyrån

Address Contact, Box 1042, 164 21 Kista Fax +46 8 522 915 99 E-mail contact.�[email protected] Printed at Colorprint AB Distribution Strömberg, se-120 88 Stockholm, tel: +46 8 449 89 57 Contact online htt p://internal.ericsson.com/page/hub_inside/news/magazines/kontakten/index.html

Dare to change

Henry Sténson, head of Group Function Communications and publisher of Contact

cover – everyday excellence

17 Iberia has an eye on the clock18 Hossam Kandeel: “Personal Operational

Excellence” is a new way of thinking19 Tips: How to make the most of your time20 Auto giant Volvo gets e-mail under control24 Maria Gutt man at Volvo: “In a way, it’s about

everyday courtesy and politeness”25 Test: How much time do you save?

3

COVER Carolina Levinton’s workplace at Ericsson in Madrid has come a long way in making the working day more efficient. Photo: Per Myrehed◀

TRYCKSAK 341 147

3G unites Ericsson and Russia’s MTS sid 26–29 pages 26–30

Report from Russia

▶▶▶▶

▶▶▶▶

▶▶▶▶

Contact

news

10 One-person offi ce in Rwanda

11 Years of work behind error-free soft ware12 Bett y is up before the cock crows13 Milestone reached in Jaipur14 CPR resuscitation over a mobile phone15 The fi rst Ericsson antenna

plus…

4 Have your say 5 How 3G Direct Tunnel works

26 3G takes off in Russia30 Russia’s MTS aims to be a global player32 Ericsson on the future35 Meet a broad-minded 20-year-old

Isometimes consider how my work has changed in the more than 35 years I have been involved in information services. I recall how indescribably

modern it felt using transferable letter-ing to create headlines for self-produced printed matter, in addition to the old Haldan (typewriter). Not to mention when we got dedicated word processors so we did not have to rewrite a press release for every small change.

But the biggest change came in the mid-1990s when the internet became established and we already had phones in our pockets. News could suddenly reach the other side of the world in 45 seconds. We are now in the midst of this world of speed. Everyone has access to almost everything, almost any time. Wonderful. But it also brings new demands. It means those of us working in communication are on our toes around the clock. If we do not correct an error or in-correct information in minutes, it can take forever to get rid of some wild rumor.

I worked in the automotive industry for a few years in the 1990s. Toyota was very successful then, as it is now. It changed the rules for the whole auto industry and developed new cars twice as fast as anyone else. The competitors’ imminent demise was predicted. It did not happen, but there are parallels that can be drawn with the situation we have today. Our competitors will do anything to surpass our position. We need to use the creative minds within our company to the maximum.

We have been saying “what brought us here will not keep us here” and “culture beats strategy, every time” for fi ve years. The more I think about these statements, the more I am sure they are the key. We have a clear strategy today that gives every-one the chance to take part in whatever they want, which increases productivity. By changing faster than the competition and realizing that change is the only thing that creates freedom, and thereby security, we will not only maintain our position, we will strengthen it.

P.S. Visit Ericsson’s intranet. During October we will publish audio fi les that describe Ericsson’s strategy in 11 languages. This is great for those of us with more time for listening than reading.

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Here is proof that Ericsson has solutions for everybody. This photo was taken by Reagan Chen near Ericsson’s office in Khartoum and was sent to us by Kamal Jailany at Ericsson in Sudan.

Reader pictureE-mail us your questions, opinions, refl ections or work-related images. We will publish a selection of the material on this page. [email protected]

STRANGE! A whole magazine about telecom strategies, without a single word about dsl – today’s ruling access technology (60-70 percent) for iptv and fi xed broadband access - isn’t that strange? Partly being a question about infrastructural changes, dsl will be a long-lasting fi xed-access technology, espe-cially with today’s situation on the real-estate market. When I searched for the term dsl in

Contact, I got nothing. This is also strange because dsl technology is rapidly evolving in a way very similar to the air interface for mobile technologies (new stand-ards with much higher speeds, increased spectrum, mimo and so on.) I think that in most cases the “Entrisphere fi ber access gpon” (which is very briefl y mentioned) will be feeding new vdsl2 sys-tems for years to come. The fi xed-broadband market is very big and today Ericsson has only a tiny fraction of that market. In my view, dsl ought to be a potentially big marketplace for Networks, Global Services and Multimedia with the possibility of generating new revenue streams. Henrik Almeida, Sweden

ANSWERwADSL 2 plus is a mature technology with established players on the market. Ericsson’s focus is to strengthen its fi xed-access position with ultra high-speed broadband access, where GPON/10GPON, GbE and VDSL 2 are key technolo-gies. An Ericsson white paper was published recently, which positions diff erent access technologies and which highlights VDSL 2 as a central part of the future. Peter Linder, Director Product Management Network Solutions

WHERE ARE THE WOMEN? The previous issue of Contact looked into the future with strat-egy as the theme, but I’m wonder-ing about the female representa-

Have your say

... Zuraida Idzabaita, new at Ericsson in Cyberjaya, Malaysia

4

WRITE TO US! What would you like to discuss? What could we improve? E-mail: [email protected]

4

PHOTO: JEREMY SUTTON-HIBBERWelcome …

Zuraida Idzabaita joined the Ericsson offi ce near Kuala Lumpur on July 1 as a hardware services executive, and helps to ensure timely deliveries of hardware and spare parts to customers. Previ-ously she worked at Marconi, and as a contractor for Ericsson.

Why did you move to Ericsson?

“It is an international company,

which will give me opportunities to build skills and broaden my competence. And as I had already worked for Ericsson, I knew that the people were friendly, and that the atmosphere was good.”How were your fi rst couple of

months at Ericsson?

“They were not easy. Shift ing to a new department and environ-

ment requires a lot of strength and you also need a lot of support to learn new processes.”Name one activity that you would

recommend for a visiting foreign

colleague in Kuala Lumpur?

“Visit the Sunway Lagoon, which is Malaysia’s fi rst water-theme park of international standard.”

tion there. Of all the images in the magazine, 34 are men and only 2 are women (three other women are seen in advertise-ments). Even on the back cover comic strip there is one girl and four guys.

Why are women almost non-existent?Barbro Ragnarsson, Sweden

ANSWERwWe try as hard as pos-sible to strike a balance between male and female images in the magazine. In the Strategy issue in particular, because Ericsson’s male-dominated top manage-ment team is behind the message, we cannot avoid having greater male representation than female. The comic strip lives its own life; however we’ll try to make up for the fact that so few women were portrayed there previously.Editorial

Well done ...Jan Häggman,

Ericsson in Karlskrona, Sweden, winner of the stra-tegy competition in Contact and on the intranet. More than 2400 answers were submit-ted, of which many scored full points. All the winning entries were placed in a hat with Jan drawn as the winner.

(Answers: b, b, a, c, a, b, b, a, c, a.)

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HOW DO YOU STRENGTHEN THE NETWORK?We simplify and “fl att en” the mobile network by allowing data traffic to go directly from the radio network to the internet gateway. This is thanks to new soft ware call-ed the 3G Direct Tunnel. We previously needed an inter-mediate node for data traf-fi c between diff erent parts of the mobile network.

WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES?The 3G Direct Tunnel in-creases network capacity dramatically, and that is something we need. Data traffi c is rocketing now that mobile tv, games and other entertainment services are becoming available. Operator revenues, however, are not keeping pace because they are adjusting their pricing models to off er fi xed fees. That is why operators need 3G Direct Tunnel, to increase mobile-network efficiency and improve profi tability. It also reduces network latency, which is important for servi-ces such as video and gaming. The simplifi ed network archi-tecture is a step towards the all-ip mobile network of the future.

WHAT CAN ERICSSON OFFER?Ericsson has had 3G Direct Tunnel since the start of Q2 and was the fi rst vendor to introduce this type of soft -ware for the mobile network, during Q2 this year, for Telstra in Australia. Another Ericsson strength is that the interme-diate node, no longer required for transporting data traffi c, can be upgraded and reused as a signaling node to control data traffi c.■ Lars Cederquist

...ABOUT HOW THE MOBILE NETWORK COPES WITH ALL THE NEW SERVICES?

Have you been asked ...

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3G Direct Tunnel – increasing mobile-network capacity

Users

1

2

3

New mobile-internet services mean major increases in data traffic.

So operators’ mobile networks must become more efficient.

By tunneling data traffic past the SGSN, operators

can conserve network resources. The traffic is transported straight from the RNC in the radio network to the GGSN in the core network. This applies for all 3G traffic, except that which goes to and from other mobile networks (about 5 percent of all traffic).

With 3G Direct Tunnel, the SGSN works solely with control signals.

The biggest effect with 3G Direct Tunnel is seen in large HSPA networks with a lot of data traffic. The higher number of control signals becomes negligible when heavy services such as mobile TV or downloads are used without moving around the network.

RNC(Radio networks’ control node)

SGSN (Packet data switch)

(Control node)

WCDMA

3G Direct Tunnel

Old path Old path

New path

GGSN(Gateway)

INTERNET

By tunneling datunneling danGSN, past the SGSN, t th SGSGGetworcan conserve networne

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SVENSKA GRAFIKBYRÅN

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66

Race against timeThe Volvo Ocean Race started in early October but the prepa-rations began before that. Here, Ericsson staff are working at top speed to erect the framework for the customer pavilion for the Volvo Ocean Race 2008–2009. This is where Ericsson will demonstrate its product portfolio. The building, with a total of 528 square meters on two fl oors, will be put up at seven stop-overs around the world. During the previous Volvo Ocean Race, about 4350 people from 461 customer groups visited the pavilion. Ericsson’s race-management team expects at least as many visitors this time around.

PHOTO: GUNAR STEINERT

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444..333000pppmmm // SSeepptemmber 3 // AAlliiccaaannntttee,, SSppaaiinnnn

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8

Latin America. ▶ Erics-son will provide business consulting and systems- integration services for Telefónica’s fi xed and mobile operations across Latin America.

Vietnam. ▶ Hanoi Telecom has selected Ericsson to develop and modernize its nationwide mobile network. This is Ericsson’s largest single contract in Vietnam. Ericsson will also manage and operate the network.

Netherlands. ▶ Ericsson has signed its fi rst contract for hosted mobile adverti-sing. kpn is the customer.

Panama. ▶ Ericsson has signed a sole-supplier agreement with Digicel Group for the nationwide deployment of a gsm/edge network.

Liechtenstein. ▶ Ericsson

has won a vdsl2 cont-ract to upgrade Telecom Liechtenstein’s adsl network.

Japan. ▶ Ericsson has signed a frame agreement with Soft bank to expand and upgrade its hspa network.

Portugal. ▶ Ericsson has signed an agreement with Sonaecom to provide and integrate its open, stan-dards-based, end-to-end iptv solution.

UK. ▶ Ericsson has been selected as sole supplier to supply and operate a complete gsm mobile net-work for Cable&Wireless eaus (Europe, Asia and us) as it launches its new Fixed Mobile Convergence, or fmc, services. Ericsson will also be responsible for running the network for fi ve years.

NEW CONTRACTS

AT HOMEwEricsson Consumer Lab has asked people in the us, France, Germany, Sweden and the uk if they have access to local networks at home.

Source: The Story of new Home 2008, Consumer Lab

New company creates common platform MERGERwEricsson Mobile Platforms is merging its operations with its equiva-lent within st Microelec-tronics. It will be a joint-venture company, with each party owning 50 percent. It will manufacture platforms for mobile applications for Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, lg and Sharp. The company is expected to have almost 8000 employees, with about 3000 people from Ericsson Mobile Platforms, and a turnover of usd 3.6 billion. The company’s main offi ce will be in Switzerland.

It is not a new savings

program, a new project

or a set of new guideli-

nes. “Cost obsession”

is a term – or mindset

– meant to inspire every

employee to constantly

try to reduce Ericsson’s

costs. It is CFO Hans

Vestberg’s way of chan-

ging culture.

ECONOMYwVestberg is talking about a cultural change. He wants a cul-ture in which everyone thinks about reducing costs. This can be done by questioning both expenses and projects that seem unnecessary, or by suggesting ways to save money. Today, before spending money, many might think that “it’s no problem because

we have the budget for it.” But that is not the point, Vest-berg says.“The point

is whether the cost is necessary,” he says. “Regardless of the bud-get, is the investment crucial to achieve what you want to achieve? Or maybe you can achieve it at a lower cost?”

This new cost ob-session is a result of Ericsson’s falling profi -tability. It must impro-ve, and reducing costs is one way. According to Vestberg, competitors have also overtaken Ericsson when it comes to cost awareness.

He is aware that

cultural changes take time. He also knows that Ericsson’s units have been working hard to make their business more eff ective and to reduce costs in recent years. It is im-portant to point out that work continues within the framework of operational excel-lence, diff erent savings programs and other initiatives. Cost obses-sion instead addresses the individual’s ability to make a diff erence and should therefore mainly

be regarded as a com-plement to cost-saving measures already taken. What are you doing your-self to be cost obsessed?

“I always question costs and think of the company’s money as my own,” Vestberg says. “There are also potential savings in using existing IT and communication tools. For example, we have monthly controller conference calls instead of face-to-face meetings. People are equally upda-ted that way.” ■ Jonas Blomqvist

Are you cost obsessed?

Vestberg’s best tips Hans Vestberg’s advice to those who want to take a fi rst step towards cost obsession is to sit down with your manager, or with colleagues, and talk about how you can reduce costs in your own group.

SPORTwFinland’s Teemu Hiekka in a tackle with Team Kista’s Francisco Manzano and Carlos Manosalva. In the background you can see the Swedish team’s goalkeeper

Hatem Allam. Almost 400 sports enthusiasts from Ericsson in Sweden and Fin-land met in Falun, Sweden, one weekend at the end of August.

Ericsson Olympics a hit

“We’re leading the market and will continue to do so”Michael Treschow, Ericsson’s chairman of the board, in an interview in Dagens Industri.

WLAN and LAN just as common

Hans

Vestberg

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▼ D O YO U H AV E AC C E S S TO

A LO CA L N E T W O R K ?

Samsung turns to corn ENVIRONMENTwSamsung’s latest wireless innova-tion, the E200 Eco phone, consists of 100 percent plant material – bioplastics extracted from corn.

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99

SEND US YOUR SUGGESTIONS! Is there something you want to tell us about? E-mail: [email protected]

Hello…

... Sándor Albrecht at Erics-son Hungary, who is locally responsible for the new global soft ware-developer career model.

What is the model?

“It describes how soft -ware developers can make a career. There are fi ve levels, from soft ware deve-loper to principal soft ware developer, and compensa-tion is connected to each level. The model describes the competence needed for each level, which is good for both managers and employees in the ipm discussions. The model also says that there has to be a position available for a developer to advance.”Why have this career path?

“We need it because many developers have asked for it and it helps us in recrui-ting new ones. In the past, if soft ware developers wanted to be promoted, they had to move into ma-naging others or projects, but many have said they don’t want that – they want to advance within soft ware development. Now they can do that. And as Erics-son is becoming more of a soft ware company, we need a career path to att ract new developers. They also want to see a clear career path.”What is the current status

of the model?

“There are trials of the model at the local r&d sites in Italy, Finland, Sweden and Hungary. Then the model will be deployed globally next year.” ■ Jonas Blomqvist

Eight boats are up

against each other on

one of the planet’s most

challenging seas to take

the lead in the fi rst leg

of the Volvo Ocean Race.

And at the fi rst stopover

in Cape Town, Ericsson is

ready to meet its custo-

mers and do business.

MARKETINGwThat is what Ericsson’s partici-pation in the round-the-world race is all about – creating growth. Henry Kings, commercially responsible for Ericsson in the Volvo Ocean Race

(VOR), calls it a business investment.

“We have prepared for this race for two years,” Kings says. “All market units must have invited their customers, planned their content and made sure demon-strations are working by now. They should also be ready to take advan-tage of the fact that top management and VIP customers will be pre-sent at the stopovers.”

Håkan Dahlström, head of Mobility Ser-vices at Telia Sonera,

Sweden, was a guest of Ericsson at the VOR start in Alicante, Spain.

Fresh perspectives

“It was a great expe-rience,” he says. “I left with several original ideas for new business models and how we can create added value for our mobile broad-band customers. The entire experience gave me new perspectives on our business. And the sailing was great fun, of course.”

The race started on October 11, with around 350 customers visiting the Ericsson stand during the event. Key industry guests and top managers met and discussed current telecom issues at three VIP roundtables. There was also an in-port race,

which is held as close as possible to the harbor to enable spectators in boats and on land to see the VOR boats in action up close. There was also a “pro-am” competition in which specially-invi-ted guests made up half the crews. Bryan Adams and UB40 entertained in the evenings.

More deals

The start of the race was a dazzling event, Kings says, and now he wants the VOR to become a platform to improve Ericsson’s future sales and position.

“The more quality time our sales force can spend with customers, the more deals we’ll see and the stronger we’ll be. Now we’re off ,” he says.■ Staff an J Thorsell.

Full speed ahead for new business

One of Ericsson’s two boats, Ericsson 4, speeding up just aft er the start of the Volvo Ocean Race.

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Ericsson and the VOR• During the 2005-2006 race, Ericsson received 4350

visitors from 461 customers. • The average visit was for two days.• In the 2008-2009 race, there are 10 stopovers at some of the most important growth markets for Ericsson, including Southeast Asia, China and India.

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New logo MARKETINGwMobile broadband now has its own logo. The gsm Asso-ciation, opera-tors, pc manufacturers and players such as Ericsson are behind the idea. The aim of the logo is to increase awareness of inbuilt mobile broad-band among consumers. The logo will be used in operators’ and pc manu-facturers’ advertising campaigns, on packaging, on products, and in Erics-son’s own marketing.

Bengt Ekström is our

man in Rwanda. He has

managed the Ericsson

offi ce in the African

country alone. But aft er

one year, business is so

good that 15 people are

going to be hired.

RWANDAwThe air is heavy with humidity from the fog that lies over “the land of a thousand hills.” In a house high up on a hillside, in one of the cap-ital Kigali’s wealthier dis-tricts, is Ericsson’s offi ce, which also functions as Bengt Ekström’s home. As the only employee, he does not shy away from any work tasks.

Coff ee and cables

“I negotiate with cus-tomers for deals for thou-sands of dollars, make coff ee, fi x work permits, go to the warehouse to get cables – there is no-thing I don’t do,” he says.

He arrived in Rwanda just over one year ago. It is a relatively small market, but one which is growing quickly. The number of mobile sub-scriptions is increasing quickly, and that means more assignments for Ericsson.

Ekström comes from

Sweden, but has mostly worked abroad – in 12 countries so far. He is a born entrepreneur; this is not the fi rst time he has built up a new busi-

ness. He has worked with similar projects, includ-ing ones in the Carib-bean and in Uganda.

Helping him in the past year has been Gil-bert Karekezi, who has acted as a general assist-ant, fi xer, chauff eur and translator. Technicians, builders and fi tters have been brought in when needed. But Ekström will

soon be joined by the fi rst group of employ-ees, both engineers and ad-ministra-

tors – 15 of them will start before the end of the year.

Part of the reason for

employing more peo-ple is the expansion of Rwanda’s 3G network.

Future assignments

And then it will be time for the house to be con-verted to a real offi ce, and for Ekström to leave. He describes himself as a “starter”, who quickly

becomes restless when the initial phase is over. Doing the same thing again does not scare him.

“You’re your own boss and decide things your-self,” he says. “So I’d like similar projects some-where else. I feel ready for Asia and Australia.”■ Helena Jansson

Ericsson in Rwanda

The offi ce was opened ▶in 2007.This year it took over the ▶technology and running of the prepaid system in Rwanda.The biggest customer is ▶operator mtn.In 2007, 60 towers were ▶built.

In 2008, 112 mobile ▶masts are being built.The 3G network is being ▶expanded in the second half of 2008.Ericsson contributes ▶telecom services to the un’s Millennium Village project.

There are more than 1 million mobile customers in the country and 98 percent of them have prepaid subscrip-tions. The number is increasing constantly.

Google flirts with Chinese MUSICwPirate copying is a major problem in

China. According to analysts,

90 percent of Chinese

internet users

download music illegally

from the internet every day. Google is now att empting to get users to change their habits by off ering a free search engine for music. The costs will be fi nanced by advertisement revenues. The intention is also to take market share from Chinese search engine Baidu, which has 64.6 percent of the Chinese market compared with Google’s 26.1 percent.

analy90

o

mus

32… million mobile

subscribers will be using

lte networks in 2013,

predicts abi Research.

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Bengt – a pioneer in Rwanda

“One-man offi ce” Bengt Ekström with his cat Mjau-Mjau 2, who keeps the combined offi ce and home free of mice.

eeeam

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11

Ikea attracts Brits via mobiles UKwThe Billy book case and Klippan sofa are old classics that have lured people to Ikea’s furniture stores for decades. The company is now using a new strategy by entering into the mobile-phone industry. uk Ikea Family members are now being off ered advantageous mobile subscriptions. All employees will also re-ceive a free mobile phone with gbp 5 (usd 9) credit. Ikea hopes that more customers will become Family members.

New gadgets get 3G modules BROADBANDwEricsson has carried out its fi rst demonstration of inbuilt 3G modules for Mobile Internet Devices (mids), new small terminals that are now hitt ing the market. The demon-stration, at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco at the end of August, was performed on at&t’s 3G network. Ericsson’s inbuilt modules are optimized to work with Intel processors, particularly the Centrino Atom processor designed specifi cally for small-scale mids. Ericsson started cooperating on modules earlier this year with Lenovo and Dell. Toshiba joined up in September, which means that three of the world’s top fi ve pc manufacturers are now Ericsson customers.

Every day Ericsson

installs about 1000 GSM

base-station cabinets

around the world – with

virtually error-free

soft ware. A well-oiled

machine is behind this

phenomenon.

GOOD THINKINGw“In total, we have one and a half million cabinets installed and hundreds of confi gu-rations. All the variants have to be maintained or upgraded,” says Ola Bovallius, head of the project offi ce for GSM base stations.

Customers have not fi led one single error report for the latest software release. This is unique and the result of 15 years of methodical work and smart ideas.

Lars-Göran Tann has led several projects since he began with GSM in 1995. He highlights three decisive measures to ex-plain the reduction in er-

ror reports: “One Track,” “The Software Ditch” and “Daily Build.”

One Track came into being 10 years ago and has saved thousands of hours per year. The clever thing about the develop-ment method is that it is done in one track instead of in many projects as before. This means you only need to correct one error in one track. One Track also brought the maintenance project together with the project for developing new func-tions. The result of One Track is that the software is no longer customer specifi c.

Easier to send

The Software Ditch means that new hard-ware such as cabinets and radio units do not need to be sent physically to the software developers. Instead the developers produce new software

that supports the new hardware; they then send it electronically to the hardware side for verifi ca-tion.

The Daily Build con-cept came about at the beginning of the new millennium. New base-station software is built every week and new functionality is added bit by bit. If something goes wrong, you simply return to the previous version. Its strength is the integra-tion plan that describes every week’s delivery of

everything from design to integration. The main benefi t is that developers can clearly see how the project is proceeding.

The latest contribution to GSM software devel-opment is that there are now two project manage-ment organizations that are responsible for every other release.

“We can now fulfi ll the demand of delivering two releases per year in one software track,” Tann says. ■ Lars Cederquist

Impressive development

Following one-track ▶development Separating soft ware ▶from hardware

Constructing comple- ▶tely new base station soft ware

Soft ware developers at gsm base stations have cut the number of error reports from customers from about 60 to virtually zero in just a few years. At the same time, the number of base-station cabinets delivered has more than doubled. This has happened by:

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Lars-Göran Tann and Ola Bovallius at the heart of the GSM base station lab, where they have eliminated soft ware errors.

co

Smart ideas lead to error-free soft ware

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12

It is mostly full thrott le

ahead for Bett y Lamonte,

assistant to the head of

Market Unit North Ame-

rica. But she has served

in the US Air Force and is

somewhat of a veteran at

Ericsson, so she enjoys

the pace.

I wake up and do some stret-

ching. I’m a morning per-son – probably because I grew up in the country and helped out on the farm.

I go to the gym and do car-

diovascular training and weight lifting for one hour. I then get myself ready at the gym and go straight to work in Plano, Texas.

I arrive at work. It’s quiet

around this time and I eat breakfast – oatmeal por-ridge and chocolate milk.

I go through my e-mails

and reply to most of them straightaway. My boss, Angel Ruiz, calls to go through today’s calendar.

There is a lot to do, so I write a

priority list of what must be done during the day and the week. At the same time, I know the schedule could change in a second. You have to be fl exible. But it is a pleasure to work with Angel.

Angel calls me to his offi ce for

a meeting before he tra-vels to Sweden. He wants to make some changes to the week’s schedule.

I have a quick lunch at my

desk – a ready-made meal

from the frozen-food dis-play, fruit, carrots, some chocolate and a Diet Coke.

I go through my e-mails

again and send an SMS to one of the assistants at head offi ce in Stockholm asking her to contact Angel. My manager is in constant contact with CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg re-garding our contracts and our customers. That me-ans the assistants have to coordinate telephone calls, trips and meetings.

I go home for the day. I cook dinner and eat with

my husband. My children

are grown up and have left home. I want to have everything organized and don’t like waiting until the last moment. That is why I have often prepared most of the dinner the previous evening. Planning this way helps if projects or work tasks suddenly come along.

I go line-dan-cing. I have

some activity almost every evening. I like cyc-ling, bowling, sewing and swimming.

I prepare my gym bag for

the morning and get my clothes ready for the next day.

Lights out!

■ Staff an J Thorsell

ONE DAY WITH BETTY LAMONTE

04:00

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Bett y Lamonte has activities almost every evening. Here she is playing bocce.

04:15

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Name: Bett y Ann Lamonte Born: May 23, 1957 Title: Assistant to Angel Ruiz , head of Market Unit North America Years at Ericsson: 17

This is Betty Ann Lamonte

11:30

11:45

17:45

18:00

21:00

22:00

What is your proudest

moment at Ericsson?

▶ Bengt Thornberg, head

of Ericsson Indonesia

“We celebrat-ed our 100th anniversary in Indonesia in November

2007. Carl-Henric Svan-berg and other senior man-agers came. My target was usd 1 billion in orders in 2007, and everyone could keep track on the intranet. Carl-Henric revealed the result to our 800 employ-ees. We had 100.4 percent. The best thing was the pride I felt for my team in front of our top manage-ment. This year the target is eur 1 billion.”▶ Christian Nyberg,

produc tion manager,

Gävle, Sweden

“In 2007 I was Gävle’s project leader for transfer product

introduction to India. We, and the factory in Nanjing, China, had a very short time to transfer 3G to our factory in Jaipur, India. We were also dependent on gett ing new products from Kista in Sweden. With eff ective cooperation we could deliver according to plan. It was great traveling home with the group aft er 18 days in India in time for my vacation.”▶ Janaka Edirisinghe,

net work services engineer,

Australia

“It was when I won the award for Gen-eral Manager

Excellence in 2007. I won because I had exceeded ex-pectations. I am honored to work with such exceptional colleagues. Gett ing feed-back from management is a step forward in my career.”■ Staff an J Thorsell

3 say

Full speed for Bett y all day long

City CountrysideTeam sport Individual sportBook Morning paperEvening at home Evening outCinema DVD

Bett y prefers:

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13


What was happening�this time……25 years ago 1983 w Joint venture company Honeywell-Ericsson Inc. was founded to develop the MD 110 digital offi ce switchboard to meet specifi c demands from the US market.

The research village in Lund, Sweden, was opened. The fi rst tenant was Ericsson Radio Sys-tems, which based its unit for the development of mobile phones there.

Ericsson won an AXE contract in China worth SEK 80 million. As part of the deal, Ericsson re-quired a license to export US-manufactured com-ponents for the telephony system.

…10 years ago 1998 w In September, Contact reported that Erics-son had bought an offi ce at St James’s Square in London with room for 350 staff . The move would take place in early 1999.

A small representative offi ce was opened in Moldova, where investments in both mobile tele-phony and fi xed-line networks were expected.

Ericsson bought data communication company Advanced Computer Communication (ACC) in the US for SEK 2 billion. The company was a leader within the fast-growing area of remote access, a technology used for internet connections.

…5 years ago 2003 wIn Brazil, mobile operator TIM Sul changed standard from TDMA to GSM. Ericsson Business Consulting helped plan the migration.

In the Netherlands, operator O2 moved its center of operations, including equipment and staff , from Amsterdam to Ericsson in Rijen. It was thought to have been the biggest move of equip-ment and staff from an operator to a vendor within the telecom sector.

Have you heard of Saudi

Arabia’s fl agship, the

King Abdullah Economic

City (KAEC)? This is what

the city will look like

when it is completed in

2020.

NEW CITYwKAEC is an astonishing mega project initiated by the Saudi king, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, in 2005. The city, which is by the Red Sea and close to Jeddah, Mecca and Medina, is being built from scratch. It will be 168 square kilometers in

size and house 2 million inhabitants. In total, the project is calculated to cost more than USD 25 billion. The ambitious target is to make the KAEC one of the world’s most important cities and a fi nancial hub that attracts investors from all around the world.

High-technology solutions are necessary in such a super-modern city, and this is where Ericsson enters the picture. Ericsson has been assigned to build and then manage the

entire fi xed-broadband network in KAEC. This infrastructure will pro-vide the population and businesses with internet, data, telephony and video broadcasting. The end-to-end deal includes transmission, IPTV, IMS, fi ber access and numer-

ous professional services. Ericsson has sold solu-tions from many parts of the company: Marconi, TANDBERG, Redback and Entrisphere.

KAEC is the fi rst of six “smart cities” planned in Saudi Arabia.■ Jonas Blomqvist

Ericsson delivers broadband to prestigious project

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Running around and around and… SPORTwKristina Paltén, who works for Ericsson in Kista, likes challenges – and the tougher the bett er, it seems. Earlier this year she reached the summit of South America’s highest mountain Aconcagua, which is 6962 meters above sea level. And recently she ran 100 kilometers when she did 40 laps around a 2.5 kilometer track in Sweden’s Uppsala 100 competition. She was proud when she reached the fi nish line in a time of 12 hours 16 minutes.

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Speedy Jaipur MILESTONEwStaff have been busy at the regional distribution center in Jaipur, India. The center had assembled 100,000 radio base stations by Sep-tember 9 this year.

Huawei on the upswing COMPETITIONw Huawei forecasts a 40 percent rise in sales this year in its 2007 annual report, writes Da-gens Industri. Huawei had a sek 85 billion turnover last year, compared with sek 51.9 billion in 2006. Its turn-over has increased almost fi ve-fold since 2003, writes the Swedish business daily. Its operating result was sek 5.9 billion, which was one-fi ft h of what Ericsson earned. Huawei’s operating margin was 7 percent last year, while Ericsson’s was 16.3 percent.

Dagens Industri says Ericsson remains the technology leader, has the biggest market share for mobile systems and the best profi tability of all telecom vendors.

Two become one ORGANIZATIONwMarket units South Latin America and North Latin America

have been merged into one new market unit – South

America. Sergio Quiroga da Cunha has been appointed head of the new unit.

New blood at Alcatel-Lucent COMPETITIONwBen Ver-waayen, former head of bt, has taken over as ceo at Alcatel-Lucent aft er Patri-cia Russo left in Q3 2008. The company also has a new chairman of the board, Philippe Camus, who replaces Serge Tchuruk.

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Australians are the fi rst

to be able to help others

in need with the help of

mobile phones.

AUSTRALIAwWith just a push of a button they can now download a fi rst-aid animation, which de-

monstra-tes step by step how to

deliver CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscita-

tion). The technology is

a world fi rst, and is the result of a collaboration between Ericsson, the Red Cross and a medical education company.

The technology is based on Ericsson’s Internet Payment Ex-change (IPX), which makes it possible to have a payment and com-munications channel between the application, the operator and the end user. The download aims to act as a vital prompt for people in times of emergency. ■ Cia Kilander

14

animation, whichmotebyho

deli(capuresu

tiontechno

Yes66%

No33%

No answer1%

N U M B E R O F

A N S W E R S : 3 4 2 0

Source: The Intranet news

Sweden gets new telephonenumber HELLOwFrom November 1 there will only be one switchboard number to

remem-ber in Sweden. Ericsson Sweden’s new

switchboard number is +�46�10�719 00 00. Pre-viously, there were 20 separate numbers for the diff erent Swedish Ericsson companies. External calls to the Swedish tele phone conference system also have a new number: +�46�10�719�95�00. The change means that 14 company switchboards are being exchanged for one new ip-based switch-board. The purpose is to create a system that is user-friendly, good for the environment and cost-eff ective.

PREMIEREwWhen the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, hits the big screen in No-vember, Sony Ericsson will release the titanium-silver C902 Cybershot. The specially designed, limited-edition mobile phone will always be on hand to help Bond in his battle against the baddies.

The fi lm, which was shot in Bolivia, has already made headlines: Pablo Groux, Bolivia’s vice minister for Culture, is unhappy about the

country being portrayed as having a widespread drugs trade.

“Portraying the Bolivian people in such a way is not acceptable, not even in a fi ctional con-text,” Groux writes in a letter of protest in French newspaper Le Monde.■ Cia Kilander

KIDS GET BROADBAND MALAYSIAwChildren in the Chow Kit areas of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, now have access to a wireless- broadband room, where they can learn how to use computers and gain know-ledge via the internet. Ericsson Malay-sia (under its Corporate Responsibility program) and its customer, operator Maxis, are behind the access@Nur Salam project. Many Ericsson em-ployees are also engaged in volunteer work through computer and language classes.

The picture shows two boys, Shafi q, (on the left ), and Yus, trying out the computers when access@Nur Salam was opened.

From the left : Tan Sri Razali, chair-man of aid organization Yayasan Salam; Nikolai Dobberstein from Maxis Communications Bhd; Krishna Kumar, responsible for Ericsson in Malaysia and ybhg Datuk Dr Halim Shafi e, chair-man of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.■ Gunilla Tamm

Make your voice heard INFLUENCEwThe annual employee survey Dialog is underway. The result of the survey will form the basis of Ericsson’s work to improve its business. The quality and reliability of the survey is largely dependent on how many answers are received. So take this opp-ortunity to make your voice heard. Read more about Dialog on the intranet.

A simple push of a butt on can save lives

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Sony Ericsson phone to star in Bond fi lm▼ CA N YO U G O O N VACAT I O N

A N D L E AV E YO U R

C O M P U T E R B E H I N D ?

Matt Welsh, former Olympic swimmer, with the Red Cross’s Robert Tickner and the McDonald family, whose daughter Abby was “saved” through CPR at the fi rst-aid download launch.

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15

Ericsson is now supply-

ing its own base-station

antennas for the fi rst

time, making the com-

pany a complete site

supplier.

PRODUCTwEricsson has been selling base-station antennas for a long time, but as a reseller. It produ-ced some special products for NTT Docomo and for Ericsson micro base sta-tions a few years ago, but never had the intention to mass-produce anten-nas – until now.

Generating more money

Ericsson recently laun-ched its fi rst product in a series of antennas, part of a push to broaden its site range and hopefully increase revenue.

Antennas represent a profi table business, says Hans Beijner who works with marketing at Product Unit Radio at

Business Unit Networks. “We just want to have

a larger slice of the cake,” he says.

Greater responsibility

Ericsson is likely to continue as a reseller for the big suppliers such as Kathrein, Andrew and Powerwave. But its own products will probably gain ground at the ex-pense of other suppliers’ antennas, especially in turnkey projects.

“It is becoming increa-singly important to be an end-to-end supplier of site solutions and that is what we’re becoming,” Beijner says.

Ericsson already has a leading position in base stations and is biggest in the world for tower-mounted amplifi ers (TMAs). It has had cables as part of its product range for some time, and has new products on the

way within tilt-steering and control units, in ad-dition to the new anten-nas.

Selling antennas brings added responsibility. Because the products are exposed to the wea-ther, they must be able to withstand extreme conditions. Poor-quality antennas are expensive to replace and can adversely aff ect network perfor-mance.

Horror stories

“Many companies have failed with similar invest-ments over the years,” Beijner says. “We’ve

heard many horror sto-ries from operators.”

Nevertheless, he feels confi dent about the focus on antennas for several reasons, including good results from fi eld tests and comparisons with other antennas. And then there is Ericsson’s extensive knowledge of the area.

Do you think Nokia Siemens or Alcatel-Lucent will follow suit?

“It’s hard to know,” Beijner says. “Expanding like this makes us unique. This was a pipe dream just fi ve years ago.”■ Jonas Blomqvist

Antennas represent a profi table business, and Ericsson is hoping to increase its revenue in this area.

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Ericsson goes it alone with antennas

Ericsson’s first base-station antenna

The antenna is called the ▶kre 101 2031/1.It is designed for the ▶806-960MHz frequency band (antennas work

with all diff erent mobile- access technologies).It was developed by the ▶Antenna System & De-sign unit in Gothenburg.

…Monica Westberg, responsible for the new recruitment tool eJobs, which in mid-2009 will be in use at all Ericsson companies around the world.

What is good about the

new tool?

“It makes it easier to look for jobs within Ericsson, which is good because we want to stimulate internal rotation in the company. It also allows us to recruit new people from out-side more eff ectively and quicker than before.” How does it work?

“With eJobs Ericsson gets a common, global process in recruitment work, and employees can see and apply for all available jobs at Ericsson around the world. The tool will also provide bett er matching opportunities, and the time it takes to appoint someone to a position will be shorter.”Who has access

to the tool today?

“Apart from the pilot countries Spain, Portugal and China, Sweden and 12 countries in the Asia Pacifi c region have intro-duced it. The results have been good so far. In its fi rst fi ve months, 266 recruit-ments were made in eJobs, and 801 internal candidates and 6631 external candida-tes have registered their profi les in the system.” ■ Johan Gabriel Fritz

Looking for a new job?

Check out the internal job site at: jobs.ericsson.se.

Hello…

FOTO

: XX

XX

XX

XX

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16

“Sometimes I talk to friends and acquaintances about how we at Ericsson are working with personal operational excellence”

Carolina Levinton

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17

With a few tricks you can reduce stress

and have a better working day. With the

Personal Operational Excellence initiative

Ericsson wants to help employees have

time for things other than e-mailing and

meetings. The idea is that more effi cient

and happier employees create a more ef-

fi cient company. It is time to change your

working day.

Time to winEmployees in Spain and Portugal

thought they could free up one day

a week by using e-mail bett er and

having more eff ective meetings. So

they gave it a try. Today Market Unit

Iberia has more than 20 volunteer

ambassadors advising colleagues

on how to improve e-mail and

meeting practices. Contact met two

of them in Madrid.

The coffee cup has been emptied and morning greetings exchan-ged. Antonio Moya leans light-ly against the table, one foot

drumming energetically on the fl oor. He is ready to roll. It is just a few minu-tes before 10 o’clock, and the meeting he has called is about to start.

“If you have said the meeting will start at 10, then start at 10,” he says. “Otherwise you are wasting people’s time.”

The meeting has been called to fol-low up progress on the yearly target for implementing product develop-ment excellence. Moya is operational

develop ment and quality manager within R&D in Madrid. He e-mailed the invitation and meeting agenda to the project team members well ahead of time. He is a bit of an expert on good meeting procedure.

“If everybody agrees to cover spe-cifi c issues and make certain decisions within an hour, then it happens,” he says. “If we need more time, then we agree to schedule a new meeting – but often people want a decision, so everyone works hard to make that happen.”

Iberia started its Personal Opera-tional Excellence (POE) program six months ago to improve personal effi ciency within the market unit. First of all, a web survey was carried out. This showed that 73 percent of staff thought they would save more than half a day a week by improving meet-ing effi ciency – having only essential meetings and using the time properly

WORK SMARTER

▶

MA

DR

IDS

PA

IN, E

UR

OP

E

■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Antonio Moya

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18

to achieve things. On top of that, 69 percent said they could save half a day a week by managing their e-mail better. This means that seven out of 10 people believe that one day a week is wasted.

The second measure, taken early in the POE, was to distribute tips about e-mail and meetings. And many seem to be following the advice already, says Jaime Trapero, one of the people responsible for the program at the market unit’s HR and Operational Development department.

Trapero says: “At fi rst, we didn’t really know how it would work, but we see that it was being passed on “boca a boca”, by word of mouth. The whole point of POE is that it makes day-to-day work easier, and it should be simple to take hints and advice on board. It is all about common sense, not rocket science.”

Iberia recently launch-ed the third part of the program. This involves new tools for simpler communication, avail-able through Ericsson’s collaboration platform (EriCOLL). Employees can get help with using wikis and the Sametime messaging service, as well as hints on the best means of communication in a particular situation.

It is no coincidence that Iberia is taking this initiative now, or that its program is called POE. The program is the result of a central Ericsson initiative called Personal Operational Excellence. It is tied to the entire group’s work with operational excellence, which is designed to produce improvements across the whole company and better fi nancial results. Operational excel-

lence so far has focused mostly on processes, but is now expanding through the POE program. It now means working smarter every day – identifying how individuals can simp-lify and improve their work lives.

Hossam Kandeel, who leads the cen-tral POE program, says that, apart from Iberia, market units Northern Africa, Central America and Caribbean have also made good progress on spreading the word. And more MUs are following their example.

“One of the most important aspects of POE is that it needs to live on for a long time,” Kandeel says. “This is not a short-duration project, but rather part of a process of constantly improving our everyday work. It is a new way of thinking.”

WORK SMARTER■ ■ ■ ■ ■

“If you have said the meeting will start at 10, then start it at 10. Otherwise you are wasting people’s time”

Antonio Moya, in blue shirt, holds a meeting together with Javier Sánchez-Pobre, Mónica Álvaro and María Luisa Corral.

▶

Did you know that ... …82 percent of Ericsson employees are oft en in meet-ings?…62 percent of employees have meetings every day or every week?…20 percent have several meetings every day?…52 percent think that they could save several hours every week if they had more effi cient meetings.

Source: Internal web poll Q1 2008

Antonio Moya

Hossam Kandeel

Jaime Trapero

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19

He helped with the survey in Iberia that provided the basis for the local program. He also conducted a global survey which shows that 98 percent of Ericsson staff use e-mail as their main form of communication, and 47 per-cent take part in at least one meeting a day. The fi gures are not disturbing in themselves, but show how employ-ees see these factors as aff ecting their work days.

“Employees feel that many hours are wasted because of badly planned meetings and excessive e-mail,” Kan-deel says. “Ineffi cient meetings and too much e-mail are problems for the company, and can cause stress. But these are also things that we can fi x, and there is a chance to become more eff ective individually and as a company if we can fi x them. The greatest benefi t is that people feel better without that stress. And if you feel good, you do a better job.”

The Ericsson office in Madrid is largely empty, with people away on their sum-mer vacations. The air-conditioning is on high to cope with the heat, so Mónica Álvaro quickly pulls on a thick cardigan before she updates the oth-ers about what has happened with the project’s key performance indicators. Thanks to Antonio Moya’s agenda, Álvaro has been aware for some time of the need to prepare her presentation for the meeting.

“Antonio is personal operational excellence personifi ed,” she says with a laugh. “He is professional, always punctual and we all get the inform-ation we need in advance.”

Moya practiced the concepts of POE long before the program was establi-shed. For example, he learned several years ago that sending out an agenda in advance leads to more eff ective meet-ings and prompt decision-making.

He is just as effi cient and energetic in his private life. His greatest interests are cycling and golf; he has diffi culty sitting still, and always wants things to be happening around him.

“I am always thinking about what I have to do next – when I am at work, I am planning what to do when I get time off , and vice versa,” he says. “I like doing a lot of things, without stress, and that requires planning.”

Market Unit Iberia has about 20 volun-tary ambassadors for the POE program: people from various departments who are simply interested in impro-

ving the working environment, and who use the advice that comes from POE. They spread their new skills in a natural way, both to colleagues and outside the company. Moya is one of the ambassadors; Carolina Levinton from Human Resources is another. So far, she has benefi ted most from the advice on e-mail.

“I work on at least four diff erent pro-jects at the same time, and I have to be organized to keep track of everything,” she says.

She points at the computer screen: four different inboxes for project- related e-mails, and one personal inbox. When she scrolls through the e-mails, it is clear that many people fl ag their messages with “Info” or “Action.”

“Simple behavior such as checking the inbox once in the morning and once in the afternoon, instead of going in immediately when a mail arrives, helps reduce stress. I can concentrate on one thing at a time,” she says.

A lot of the information about POE is available on the intranet, including links and a toolkit with useful hints and advice. The aim is to get people to think ahead by asking a few key questions: which means of commu-nication is best for the current situa-tion? Should the message be an e-mail between two people, or sent to the entire department using Sametime? Will a 15-minute online meeting be enough, or does everyone need to meet for a couple of hours? Levinton, for example, usually uses Sametime when she needs a quick answer to a question, and then sends an e-mail for more per-sonal information.

“I like talking to other people about ▶

1. Filter incoming tasks. Do not over-commit or take

on a task without understanding the expected outcome or dead-line. Delegate when possible and block unimportant work.

2. Stay organized. List your tasks and use reminders

to help you remember them. Determine a place for everything so that you do not waste time looking for things.

3. Plan your tasks. Break your big tasks into small

actions. Set a time limit for each task.

4. Plan your time. Tackle things that waste your

time. Set time slots for daily and weekly planning. Deal with key tasks when you are perfor-ming at your peak. Plan blocks of uninterrupted time. Use small pockets of time for small tasks. Do not cram your schedule.

5. Focus. Prioritize the most important task of the

day. Focus on one task at a time and be able to say no to some activities. Avoid interruptions and multitasking.

6. Organize: Create folders for diff erent projects/

subjects. Delete mail from the mailbox with subjects that you have already taken care of. Learn how to search among the folders.

7. Get things done. Work to overcome att itudes that

foster procrastination.

8. Reward yourself. Reward yourself for successfully

completing tasks with everyday things, such as having a nice coff ee or taking a walk.

GET TIME FOR MORE

Did you know that ... … there were 6 billion work-related e-mails sent around the world in 2006?… an average offi ce worker spends 49 minutes a day on e-mail?… 62 percent of all employ-ees check their work e-mail when at home or on vacation?

Source: Ericsson’s POE program

Source: The Guardian

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20

this,” she says. “I think it works really well, so sometimes I talk to friends and acquaintances about how we at Ericsson are working with per-sonal operational excellence.”

Back in the meeting room, people are starting to review the decisions that have been taken. Moya writes some fi nal points on a “to do” list. María Luisa Corral, Javier Sánchez-Pobre and Mónica Álvaro raise some points that have to be dealt with before the next meeting. Anything that they do not have time for today will be taken up at the next meeting – and as usual, Moya will send out an agenda well in advance to everyone attending.

Everyone in the room agrees on two points. First, structured meetings that follow the new guidelines are more productive than in the previous culture, when far too many meetings lacked a clear target and purpose. And second, meetings are an important part of work at Ericsson. For today’s participants, POE is not necessarily about reducing the number of mee-tings, but more about ensuring that the ones they do have worked well. They have seen that this in turn re-duces the number of meetings. For Mónica Álvaro, who is involved in

diff erent stages of the project, a lively dialog is essential. She says people should not generalize about there being too many meetings.

“Sometimes you might not want to attend a meeting, but it is incor-rect to say that many meetings are unnecessary. You often need to meet to decide something together, but spending 10 minutes together could be enough.”

Her colleague Javier Sánchez-Po-bre agrees, adding that sometimes discussing complicated technical is-sues may require a lot of time; in such cases, it can be good to meet after everyone has had time to consider their position on these matters.

The projector is turned off , notebooks are closed and the table is tidied up. The meeting has ended – at the agreed time.

Antonio Moya, closing the door to the meeting room, says: “For me, the most important thing is that I know what I want to achieve and how I want to achieve it, and therefore the others also need to know that. When we have the same starting point, some thing can really be ac-hieved by having meetings.” ■ Text: Helena Jansson Photo: Per Myrehed

“This is not a short-duration project, but rather part of a process of constantly improving our everyday work”

▶

1. Prepare. Establish a detailed and timed

agenda. State the purpose of the meeting, so everyone will know why it is being held. Prepare for the meeting. Do not forget to set aside time for summarizing what has been said and determining the next step.

2. Invite the right people. Who has to be there and

who does not? Ensure that the key people att end. Can someone

take part via the web or tele-phone? Appoint one person to run the meeting, one to keep an eye on the time, and another to take the minutes.

3. Start and end on time. Plan things so you get to

the meeting on time. Do not book two meetings directly aft er one another – the participants may be late.

4. Focus on the agenda. Switch off your phone

and shut down your e-mail account and computer if they are not needed for the meeting. A meeting is a meeting – focus on it. If other issues crop up, address them another time. The agenda rules.

5. Summarize. Invest time at the end of the meeting

to summarize and share the minutes.

DO YOU WANT BETTER MEETINGS?


Hossam Kandeel

Reading tip Want to know more about good meetings? Organizational guru Peter Senge’s books, including The Fift h Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Or-ganization, are good reading.


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> > > Volvo rolls out giant project > > >

More eff ective meetings demand discipline. Meeting participant Javier Sánchez-

Pobre concentrates.

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Maria Gutt man feels that she is less stressed aft er

att ending Volvo Cars’ e-mail course.


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Volvo crosses the e-mail morassMore companies are realizing that

e-mail is not only an eff ective

way to communicate, but it is also

something that increases employee

stress and eats into work schedules.

Volvo is one company that has put

e-mail on the right track.

Lebanese music slowly fi lls the lunch café, and owner Miled Elhage hums as he pushes the chairs aside to get his broom

under the tables. His café is in the heart of “Volvo Country,” in the industrial area of Torslanda, Gothenburg, on Sweden’s west coast. The lunchtime rush is over for the day.

“A lot of old workmates come here, but it is mostly men in suits who dine here. I worked on the assembly line at Volvo before I opened this place a few years ago,” he says, nodding toward the large factory building on the other side of the road.

These “men in suits” are Volvo of-fi ce workers, whose digital mailboxes are 85 percent full with internal e-mail. And the chances are that loads of new e-mails have come in during their lunch breaks. Just as in other large international companies, a large part of the internal communication is done via e-mail. But despite e-mail’s many benefi ts, an internet survey revealed that something had to be done – many employees saw e-mail as a problem.

As a result, Volvo Cars started a major project to see how e-mail could be used more eff ectively and constructively. This resulted in a course in e-mail skills, which all the group’s 8000 sa-laried staff took during the fi rst half of 2008. The course was targeted at those who use computers at work, be-cause they are the ones most aff ected by problems with e-mail. Those who work on the factory fl oor do not rely on e-mail for work.

“E-mail was taking up too much time and becoming a stress factor,”

says Petter Halling, one of those who led the project. “We realized we could help our staff structure their use of e-mail.”

Questions from em-ployees included: What does it mean when I am copied (cc-ed) on an e-mail? Should I respond to a meeting request? How do I use the calendar function in Outlook?

The project leaders reached the conclu-sion that there was a lack of common ground rules. These now exist in the form of a policy laying out a common view of how e-mail should be hand-led. The policy has been distributed in printed folders and is also available on the intranet for download.

Halling says it is not so much the huge volume of messages that cause stress: “No, the problem is not prima-rily the number of e-mails. The thing that causes stress is the lack of clarity about what you as the recipient are expected to do when you receive the e-mail, and when you should act.”

Halling has since left Volvo to work full-time as a consultant on working-environment and computer-use is-sues. He points out that all ground rules must be adapted to suit diff erent companies. For example, a person with direct e-mail contact with customers cannot check their mailbox only once in the afternoon.

Volvo’s e-mail education involves a web-based component, which em-ployees can do when they want, and a half-day group course.

Maria Guttman works in an open-plan offi ce, with desks and shelves made of pale Scandinavian birch, remi-niscent of an Ericsson offi ce. Beside her computer, she has pasted up a quote from Einstein: “The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, real progress comes from raising new questions and looking at old problems in a new way.” And she ▶

GO

TH

EN

BU

RG

SW

ED

EN

, EU

RO

PE 1. Send fewer e-mails: it is not

always the best way of com-municating. Phone calls are usually bett er for discussions or sensitive situations, chat for back-and-forth conversations, sms for urgent notifi cations, meetings for long discussions, collaboration tools and blogs for joint work and team com-munication.

2. Send to fewer people: think about who really needs to

receive your e-mail. Avoid the “reply to all” and cc functions.

3. Be clear in the subject fi eld: tag it with Action (the e-mail

involves a task), Question (you have a request for information or need an answer that will take the recipient only a few minutes) or Info (the e-mail has information that is useful for the recipient, but that requires no action). Aft er the tag, write a short headline about the e-mail content.

4. Use short, structured e-mails. Be clear what you expect from

each recipient, summarize and high-light the key message. Avoid writing e-mails longer than one screen and do not forward e-mail threads. Identify yourself so the recipient does not need to look up who you are.

5. Check your inbox only a few times a day. Turn off all

alerts signaling that a new e-mail has arrived.

6. Organize your e-mails by creating folders for diff erent

projects; remove your processed e-mails from the inbox and learn to search your folders.

7. Once you have opened an e-mail, decide what to do with it.

8. If you receive unnecessary e-mails, ask not to get them.


HINTS HELP YOU BEAT E-MAIL OVERLOAD

Petter Halling

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“E-mail was taking up too much

time and becoming a stress factor.”

is a problem-solver. She is leading the development of processes and met-hods for more than 50 Volvo projects at diff erent stages. She feels that the e-mail training has given her a better grip – despite her receiving 20 to 50 e-mails every day.

“My job is based on communica-ting with a lot of people,” she says. “We meet, we talk on the phone – and we send e-mails. I was drowning in all the e-mails, but now there is less pressure.”

Guttman learned to structure her e-mails, both those she sends and those she receives. Among other measures, she has set up Outlook so that it sorts her incoming mail. Messages from cer-tain people go straight to the inbox for their respective projects. Even mail for which she is only cc-ed has its own inbox, and she reads those when she has spare time. But the best has pro-bably been the calendar functions in Outlook.

“Nowadays I use this calendar all the time,” she says, showing with a couple of simple keystrokes how she can book a meeting in a conference room when everyone is available, at least according to Outlook.

“Within the company, nobody ever really needs to call or e-mail me to see if I am available. They only need to synchronize with my calendar. So-metimes it might feel impersonal, but it is effi cient.”

Guttman’s workmate Krister Lars-son sits on the other side of the room. On the wall behind him is a large, co-lorful world map showing the route for the 2001–2002 Volvo Ocean Race. Guttman walks over and asks if he thinks the e-mail training has made a diff erence.

“Yes, I think so,” Larsson says. “In the end, the hints have made me more effi cient, even if it is diffi cult to say I have gained so many minutes per day.”

Larsson also works to ensure that Volvo’s production methods and pro-cesses work smoothly; he has just been appointed as one of those responsible for e-mail training. He says it is im-portant that the program continues, and that all new employees get the training.

“When I went on the half-day course, I got a good chance to really learn how Outlook works,” he says.

“One simple thing that helped me was programming in the time diff erence with the US, because I have a lot of contacts with Ford (which owns Volvo Cars).”

So has there been any change to e-mail behavior at Volvo? Both yes and no, Guttman and Larson say. Change takes time, and they do not agree on whether there are fewer mails in their inboxes since the project started. The biggest change perhaps is that there are fewer cc-ed mails, and more e-mails are being marked FYI (for your informa-tion) or FYA (for your action) in the subject fi eld. The feeling is, however, that the policy has helped people plan and prioritize their e-mails.

Volvo Cars does not have a program like Ericsson’s Personal Operational Excellence, but the internal e-mail training is now part of a larger process called Information Management. It deals predominantly with effi ciency, working environment and communi-cation. And obviously, Guttman says, larger companies should make life ea-sier for their employees by having clear guidelines.

“In one way, it is about normal eti-quette and being polite,” she says. “But that can be seen diff erently in diff erent countries. We are owned by Ford, and a global group is never a homogenous organization.”■ Text: Helena Jansson Photo: Bodil Bergqvist

▶


Pett er Halling

Matthew W Cain, e-mail ana-

lyst at consultancy company

Gartner Research in Stamford,

US

“It is not about e-mail or meet-ings, but rather about communi-cation. Employees need support

and companies have to realize that. It is unbelievable that we allow so much ignorance around the use of e-mail, when you think about how much time it takes.

“Even if more people are realizing the pro-blems e-mail can cause, I think it will take the corporate world 10 years to understand the importance of this. Volvo and pharmaceutical company Novartis are two pioneers in dealing with e-mail.”

Karen Renaud, computer

science researcher, University

of Glasgow, UK

“In my research, I identify three groups of e-mail users: relaxed – those who do not experience stress; driven – those who expe-

rience stress but are not negatively aff ected; and stressed – those who are stressed. This means a third of users feel e-mail stress. It is disturbing that those who do not experience stress can easily be pushed over into the stressed group.

“E-mail is a new behavior we have learned along the way, but now a change is due. I belie-ve that sending too many e-mails will retreat to the benefi t of more personal meetings.”

Kari Österling, meeting con-

sultant at Mötesverkstan in

Stockholm, Sweden

–“A good meeting culture stimu-lates creativity and ultimately profi tability for the company. A good meeting is characterized

by clarity, participation and structure. If col-leagues know the purpose of a meeting, why they are there and how they can contribute, stress is reduced.

“I have worked with companies such as American Express, sas and Akzo Nobel and one trend I’ve noticed is an increase in web meetings. But remember that you need the same structure for virtual meetings as for face-to-face meetings.”

WHAT DO THE EXPERTS SAY?

Matthew W Cain

Kari Österling

Karen Renaud

The calendar function in Outlook plays a crucial part when saving time.

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THIS IS HOW IT WORKS:

Choose the alternative that you recognize most from yourself. Then go to the key and fi nd out your score. Then it is time for the verdict!

1 The art of communication and collaboration: how do you

do it?(A) Communication tools? That’s phone and e-mails, right? (B) I know about chat, on-line meetings, EriCOLL and stuff … but when do I get time for that? (C) Chat, on-line meetings, EriCOLL. I do use them. Occasio-nally. (D) My choice of communication or collaboration tool depends on the most eff ective means appro-priate to the circumstances.

2 What about you and the wonderful world of e-mails?

(A) Don’t get me started. I send and get a thousand a day. It’s like… Swampsville. (B) I probably spend a few hours or so throughout the day answe-ring and sending them. I fi nd they are a distraction: I can’t focus on my important tasks. (C) It’s one good way to communi-cate. I control the time I spend on e-mailing… though I might need to use fewer Cc, reply-to-all, or write bett er-structured e-mails. (D) I have read, understood and practice the latest guidelines regarding the sending and managing of e-mails. Hey, you’re talking to the king of e-mail management.

3 Meetings: time for a get-together, or time to get

going?(A) Meetings… they’re just, all talk! Seriously… I have too many, too oft en, and too litt le happening in them.(B) Meetings… yeah, they’re necessary… good that there are not too many. They’re informal…

not much preparation done… and oft en, we never start on time, or simply run late. (C) Meetings: yes please, as oft en as possible, and as many as possible. It’s the way to get stuff done. So we invite as many people as we think may be inte-rested. And we keep going until we’ve made some decisions.(D) My meetings are led by a prepared agenda; include only the

most necessary people, and start and fi nish on time. And we try to keep the number of meetings down – we have bett er things to do.

4 Time management: how well are you managing?

(A) I HAVE NOT GOT TIME TO ANSWER THIS. (B) You know what business is like… it’s crazy one minute and

quiet the next… the thing is, I can hardly ever plan anything with my family. I hope I can develop bett er time management- knowledge. (C) I try to plan my whole day, from start to fi nish. I admit it needs lots of discipline. (D) Planning, delegating, priori-tizing actions and making deci-sions. I live by these principles. It buys me time for the things that really matt er in life.

How time-effi cient are you?

This test is an edited version of the test that is available at the Personal Operational Excellence site on the intranet.

Count your points

DO THE TEST

Key: A=1 point, B=2 points, C=3 points, D=4 points. Summarize your points and see which zone you’re in.

Zone 1: Score 4You have got to be kidding, right? So you’re hopeless at communicating, defeated by e-mail, wouldn’t know a good meeting if it hit you, and your time-management skills give you heart problems. Nah. We’re not buying it. Zone 2: Score 5–10

Now: where do we begin? Get to know about on-line meet-ings and collaboration tools. Learn how to master e-mails, and don’t let them rule your life. Plan meetings, use an agenda, stick to meeting times and invite only those who need be there. And above all, learn to manage your time and priori-tize. You know: there’s hope for you yet.Zone 3: Score 11–15 Yup: certainly gett ing there. Now just a litt le more att ention

to the details. Have you read up on the latest guidelines for meetings and e-mails? And how’s your time management? Collaborative skills in top form?Zone 4: Score 16–20OK, you can be very pleased with yourself. Your collabora-tive skills are excellent; your e-mail and meeting capabilities are up to speed; and the way you manage your time is just what the doctor ordered.

25

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“We have to get the same high quality in our 3G system as we have in our GSM net-works, and quickly” Viktor Kuznetsov

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3G has really taken off in Russia this year. In May, the largest operator in the country, MTS, set the tone by launching its fi rst 3G system in St Petersburg. With Ericsson as its vendor, the operator has set ambitious goals for the coming years.

It is Thursday morning and, just like their other colleagues, Pavel Eliseev and Viktor Pogorelov from Ericsson in Moscow are working

on 3G coverage for mobile operator MTS. Ericsson is housed in a modern offi ce building on Shpalernaya Street in St Petersburg. As Eliseev and Pogo-relov work on a 3G coverage map, they exchange information in English with two colleagues from Ericsson in Cro-atia. Ericsson founder Lars Magnus Ericsson looks down from his portrait on the wall in front of them.

MTS, Russia’s largest mobile ope-rator, launched its fi rst 3G system at the end of May.

Björn Eisner is Ericsson’s KAM for

Sistema, the industrial group that owns MTS. “One of the customer’s demands was that the network had to be in operation for the Interna-tional Economic Forum held in St Petersburg at the start of June, which the president of the Rus-sian Federation, Mr. Med-vedev, attended. That put us into a very limited time frame,” he says.

Larisa Gryada, Ericsson’s project ma-nager for the MTS 3G assignment in the St Petersburg area, says: “It feels great

Russia goes 3G

ST

PE

TE

RS

BU

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RU

SS

IA, E

UR

OP

E

AN OPERATOR WITH GREAT PLANS

▶

Björn Eisner

Larisa Gryada

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that we met the tight deadline for the launch. The project will not wind up until sometime during 2010.”

This is Gryada’s fi rst job as pro-ject manager. She was previously Ericsson’s account manager for MTS in the region, which means she knows the customer well. That makes her cur-rent role easier.

“There are three project managers working together, supported by many diff erent units,” she says. “We also get help from Ericsson staff with 3G skills from other countries, including Le-banon, Israel, Croatia, Portugal and Finland.”

MTS is housed in several build-ings about a 20-minute drive from Ericsson’s offi ces.

“I was here for a lot of customer meetings; now it is for project meet-ings instead,” Gryada says with a laugh.

Viktor Kuznetsov, technical direc-tor for MTS’s northwest region agrees and says: “Yes, we have worked to-gether for seven years, and that is a big advantage, of course.” His region is the operator’s second-largest, and apart from St Petersburg, it covers Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Novgorod and Arkhangelsk. “By the end of 2010, we should have 3G deployed in all major cities in the region,” he says.

Kuznetsov adds that the high qua-lity of Ericsson’s equipment and high

speed of rollout were among the rea-sons why MTS chose Ericsson as its vendor.

“We have to get the same high quality in our 3G system as we have in our GSM networks, and quickly,” he says. “We don’t want to lose sub-scribers, so it is important that they do not experience any diff erence in quality between the GSM and the 3G systems.”

Gryada adds: “This is a turnkey pro-ject, where Ericsson does everything except site acquisition for the base stations. That means there are many diff erent tasks with a lot of people involved, and it has sometimes been hard to fi nd enough staff .”

When the 3G system was launched in St Petersburg in May, subscriber growth was so high that expansion plans were brought forward. There have since been launches in Kazan, Yekaterinburg and also in Sochi, a particularly prestigious assignment because the Winter Olympics will be held there in 2014.

The importance of 3G to MTS can be seen when Kuznetsov shows Contact the radio base station for 3G in the operator’s St Petersburg offi ce. “This is also where our very fi rst 3G system in Russia was tested together with Erics-son,” he says with pride.

▶

“We are expecting a lot of interest in video on demand

and other multimedia services” Viktor Kuznetsov

Russians are interested in techno-logy; even before the 3G system was launched in St Petersburg, every seventh subscriber had a 3G phone.

RUSSIA▶ The country, which stretches across 11 time zones, is the largest in the world by area. There are 141 million inhabitants and the economy is the seventh-largest in the world.

▶ Russia is part of Market Unit Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Ericsson has 355 employees in Russia, with offi ces in Moscow, St Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk. Jan Campbell is head of the market unit and country manager for Russia.

▶ Mobile penetration is 121.1 percent because many people have multiple sim cards. The three largest mobile operators are mts, with 35.2 percent of the subscribers; VimpelCom, with 24.7 percent; and MegaFon, with 22.6 percent. All three have received 3G licenses, and mts and VimpelCom have chosen Ericsson as a main supplier for their net-works. Other 3G suppliers in Russia include Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei.

▶

PHO

TO: S

CA

NPI

X

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Pavel Eliseev (left ) and Viktor Pogorelov, from Ericsson in Moscow, traveled to the Ericsson offi ce in St Petersburg to help with the 3G project.

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Russians are interested in tech-nology; even before the 3G system was launched in St Petersburg, every seventh subscriber had a 3G phone. “As well as mobile broadband, we are expecting a lot of interest in video on demand and other multimedia servi-ces,” Kuznetsov says.

The long-awaited 3G licenses were handed out last year. And since the frequencies in St Petersburg were ready much earlier than in Moscow – the fi rst 3G network took off in St Petersburg. “Russia is a huge and growing market, but also a complicated one,” Eisner says. “Politics, relationships and even language diffi culties play their part. MTS has bought several mobile opera-tors in CIS countries and as a result has equipment for diff erent mobile stan-dards from diff erent vendors. It has now been decided to have two vendors in each country and a total of three: Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei.

“To improve capacity and coverage, MTS is now carrying out a wide-rang-ing modernization of its mobile net-

works, including replacing its core networks. This is a major undertaking for Ericsson, and will take several years.”

Marcel Stoeckli, CTO at MTS, says: “Although GSM is and will remain most important for us, the 3G networks we are now bringing online are strategically im-portant. Three-quarters of the popu-lation will eventually have access to various 3G services. Because fi xed-line telephony in the countryside is so poor, it is diffi cult to roll out fi xed broadband. So, mobile broadband will be the solution there for both private consumers and companies.

“MTS is a big operator but the company is largely unknown outside Russia and CIS countries, something we want to change by becoming more global.”

Jan Campbell, head of Ericsson Russia, says: “3G is important as it sets bright perspectives for the futu-re growth of mobile broadband and multi media in the region.”

Eisner summarizes the situation

like this: “Sistema and MTS make up an interesting customer with big am-bitions. Sistema owns both fi xed and mobile operators, and has licenses in several other countries in the region, which opens the way for further busi-ness opportunities. That is why our 3G undertaking in St Petersburg is such an important reference for our continued cooperation with Sistema.”■ Text: Gunilla Tamm Photo: Alexander Drozdov

“Three-quarters of the population will eventually

have access to various 3G services”

Larisa Gryada from Ericsson and Viktor Kuznetsov from MTS chat at MTS’s OSS center. Beside them is Vlasova Lidia, who works at the center.

Did you know that ... ... Lars Mag-nus Ericsson established his fi rst factory outside Sweden in 1897. It was in Russia, in St Petersburg. The building that housed the factory still exists. It has recently been renovated and is called Bu-siness Center Ericsson. Rus-sia was a huge market at the end of the 19th century, and Lars Magnus Ericsson seri-ously consid-ered moving the company’s main offi ce to St Petersburg. Marcel

Stoeckli

Mobile operator ▶ mts is part of the Russian industry group Sistema. One of Sistema’s major businesses is fi x-ed and mobile tele communications. As well as Russia, ▶ mts has mobile sys-tems in Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Armenia. Overall, the operator has more than ▶91 million subscribers, 61.9 million of whom are in Russia. mts is the world’s eighth-largest mobile operator in terms of subscribers (according to Ovum).

MTS IN BRIEF

▶

Marcel Stoeckli

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First, project leader Magnus Karlsson explains what the project is not – a new strategy.

“Communicating Worlds 2020 is about gaining insights into the future and to make long-term strategies possible,” he says. “Employees from all levels, including Ericsson’s top management, have participated in this.”

The purpose is also not to paint one single picture of the world in 2020. But the project has selected four possible scenarios.

”These are extreme alternatives and construc-ted so that each one will be equally plausible,” Karlsson says. “We’re not advocating one or se-veral of them. We must be prepared for all four.”

Work on the scenarios started just over one year ago by beginning to identify trends within several areas, such as demography, economics, sustainable development and technology.

From all these trends came what the project group has called “likely truths,” a series of the-mes that could be reality in 2020.

Some such trends are that networking, perso-nalization and mobility are changing users’ beha-vior radically, while communications solutions are becoming critical to companies that want to ensure sustainable competitiveness. China and India are major economic powers and 1 bil-lion new middle-class consumers have entered into the global marketplace. These likely truths form the basis of the four scenarios.

As well as the research that has led to these scenarios and likely truths, “user stories” have been created that are based on Ericsson’s con-

sumer studies. These are 15 fi ctitious people, or “personas,” who, through their life situation, show how communications technology crea-tes add-on value for them in 2020. There are about 15 similar concepts that show the same for companies.

Employees have contributed to some of this work by playing the game “Life in 2020.” They com-pete to create the best story of how technology creates value for people and companies in 2020.

Many of these stories have been dramatized by the participants and recorded on video.

“The video clips are on Ericsson’s intranet and ideas from there have inspired the creation of our “personas” and the applications they use,” Karlsson says.

One “persona” is Minako Aragaki, who lives in Japan. In 2020, she will be 86 years old and retired. She is a widow and has two grown-up children. It is important for Minako to be as in-dependent as possible, but she needs some help – and stimulation in the form of daily contact with her relatives in other parts of the country. One single operator off ers her everything she needs. The services consist of communication, fi lm, data and personal content which, among other things, make it possible for Minako to send and receive pictures from her relatives and create her own image bank. In Minako’s case, there is a service with a portable medicinal unit that reminds her to take her medicine, gives her health advice, and sends her blood pressure and heart-rate details to her doctor with the help of sensors.

“It’s about thought leadership,” Karlsson says. “We can show our customers how this informa-tion can be used to create long-term prepared-ness and focus on technology usage.”

One important part of the continuing work on the scenarios will be to use the material in dia-logs with some of Ericsson’s customers. There is already presentation material, which contains a demonstration of the “personas,” companies and applications.

Dmitry Maselsky at Group Function Strategy & Operational Excellence says that they have already started discussing the project’s results with customers.

“They oft en want us to drive on the discussion so they can gain more insight,” he says.

At the same time, internal working groups through out the organization are working to identify implications for Ericsson and the company’s long-term strategy. The result will form an important input to the strategy work in 2009.

“The scenarios also give us a “map” to drive long-term business development. We can identify important areas where Ericsson must prepare itself to be involved in and play,” says Håkan Österberg, who is responsible at the unit for business development and innovation at Group Function Strategy & Operational Excellence.

So how does the Communicating Worlds 2020 project paint the picture of the world in 2020? Here are four possible futures…■ Text: Staffan J Thorsell Illustration: Ebba Berggren ▶

A clear vision of the future20/20 vision is a term that means perfect sight – that you can see with total sharpness. It is not yet possible to look into the future, but Ericsson’s Communicating Worlds 2020 project is one way to prepare for it. Four future scenarios have been selected.

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BRANDS & PIPES The internet model, where services and content are separated from the actual networks, has become unbeatable. Few large and very innovative service providers, or brands, dominate. They supply their services indepen-dently of network providers and develop their own terminals and functions for the services. Users support their one or few brands, but are demanding new, convenient and reliable lifestyle or corporate packages with personal services.

An increasing number of services are accessible on the web – even those that were previously available through tv or renting fi lms. The consumers are fed up with surfi ng around among all the rubbish and are gett ing the brand to come up with new and relevant content for them.

USER CHOICE Users are tired of the current lack of user-friendliness, complicated tech-nologies and unpredictable quality. Their demand for new, reliable services is driving development towards increasingly more capable networks that “hide” the technical complexity and make it possible to off er user services over diff erent networks and equipment, without needing to think about diff erent terminals’ varying qualities.

Because this makes it all the easier to off er new services, there is an ex-plosion of choice for consumers, with more innovative players off ering more services. Everyone has realized how smoothly and effi ciently all the services, it solutions and terminals work together.

GREEN SHIFTIn this scenario, all lifestyle and company choices are guided by creating a sustainable society and limiting carbon dioxide emissions. Legislation and incentives for reduced energy consumption, and tax relief for sustainable businesses, have created new rules for companies and new consumer be-havior.

With everyone demanding sustainable communications solutions, the pace of innovation is increasing powerfully within areas such as e-health, e-government, teleworking and logistics solutions. Consumers and com-panies want terminals, systems and technology that last longer and want their vendors to focus on useful services that make things more effi cient and increase productivity.

ALL-INCLUSIVE Major players have been formed by acquisitions across industrial boundaries. These new integrated companies off er everything – from communication to content. Users are served by one single provider. This is appreciated by users who put convenience before freedom of choice. They do not need to put together anything themselves, everything is packaged and ready. The mergers have built higher barriers for competitors wishing to reach those users who make up the major companies’ customer bases.

Footnote: For more information and videos about 2020, please visit the intranet start page and search “Are you ready for 2020.”

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The company’s founder Lars Magnus Ericsson is just 20 in this por-t rait and he has just moved to Stockholm. He worked there as an app-rentice with an instru-ment maker and learned how to manufacture and repair telegraphs. In the evenings, Ericsson studied mathematics, materials engineering, mechanical drawing, English and German. He was gift ed and received a state grant, which made it possible for him to study and work in Germany and Switzer-land. In 1876, he opened a small mechanical workshop for telegraph instruments.Photo: Archive

Sweden, 1866

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MobileAdventures by Jola Cederschiöld

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Documents

Contact - Ericsson.com · 2016-10-20 · straight from the RNC in the radio network to the GGSN in the core network. This applies for all 3G traﬃc, except that which goes to and